Pa. sees vaccine doses increasing, but levels aren’t yet high enough

The state Department of Health estimates that as of Saturday, Pennsylvania is slated to have received 1.8 million doses of vaccine to fight COVID-19 while acknowledging demand continues to outpace supply.

April Hutcheson, press secretary for the department, said in a briefing on Friday that the 1.8 million includes 930,150 designated first doses of vaccine and 884,700 designated second doses. Of the first doses, 719,928 have been administered. And of the 884,700 designated second doses, 173,328 have been administered.

Ms. Hutcheson said the state expects next week to be allocated about 163,000 designated first doses of vaccine, reflecting the increase that the Biden administration has talked about this week. The state has received requests for more than 700,000 doses of vaccine from providers.

“We know that we have a very high demand and not enough of a supply,” she said. “We know that will continue until more vaccine is made and until we can move

through more of” the state’s higher-priority vaccine recipients, such as health care workers.

Ms. Hutcheson said the state plans to launch more community vaccination clinics as it gets more vaccine. She said approval of a single-dose vaccine — like the Johnson & Johnson vaccine announced this week — “will be a game-changer for us.”

Allegheny County reported 364 new COVID-19 cases on Friday and 39 new deaths.

Of the new cases, 287 are confirmed from 1,314 PCR tests. There are 77 probable cases. New cases range in age from 1 month to 103 years with a median age of 46 years. The dates of positive tests ranged from April 4 to Jan. 28. Seven positive tests are more than a week old. Only one test is from April.

The dates of the new deaths ranged from Jan. 2 to 26 and included one person in their 50s, seven in their 60s, six in their 70s, 12 in their 80s and 13 in their 90s. Seventeen were associated with long-term care facilities.

Since March 14, there have been 68,809 cases of COVID-19 in Allegheny County residents, 4,221 hospitalizations and 1,451 deaths.

Statewide, 9,643 new cases were reported bringing the total to 834,048. However, the count includes backlogged antigen testing data from urgent care centers; 4,052 of Friday’s newly identified cases had their specimens collected over a week ago.

There are 3,691 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19. Of that number, 753 patients are in the intensive care unit with COVID19.

There were 159 new deaths reported for a total of 21,462 since the pandemic began.